Lucca area or Cortona area?
 

Flying to Italy in one week and splitting up our Tuscany holiday between the northern region and southern. As we have 9 nights to divide, I am wondering which is the best way to do it. We will be staying outside of Lucca (San Lorenzo a Vaccoli) and then outside Cortona. So far I have booked for 5 nights in each place and have until later today to change one of them to 4 days.

Can anyone help me with this? I have been to outside of Cortona 2 yrs ago and visited Siena, San Gimiangno (sp?), Pienza, and many of the other small hill towns near Cortona, but never got to Florence or Lucca or Pisa. My husband hopes to get one day in the Cinque Terre which is closer to Lucca.

My thoughts are to stay 5 nights near Lucca and then 4 nights near Cortona and visit more of the Umbria region when in Cortona area.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Lucca so that you can go to Cinque Terre. My fav part of Italy.

Why Cortona?
If you want to see Umbria stay in Umbria. I like the Bevagna area--or Spello.

2 years ago we fell in love with a charming country hotel/villa outside of Cortona and thought we would stay there again. We also quite liked a few restaurants in Cortona and the countryside itself. I am not tied to the Cortona area and if I can find another similar charming country hotel with a/c and pool I would be willing to forgo Cortona and stay in Umbria. I need to make that decision fairly quickly, though.

Where do you go after these 9 nights?

I'm sure there are loads of charming country hotels throughout Umbria. This place is recommended often here:

http://www.geniuslociumbria.it/about...-italy-cities/

I love repeat visits to a place. For me, Cortona would be just slightly too far for exploring all of Umbria, but it depends on what/where YOU want to explore. Decide that and then do some searches on driving times, but add a little because Google, Mappy, viaMichelin, etc., are usually too optimistic.

Why you don't evaluate Montecatini Terme? It is very close to Lucca, which can be reached even by train and, more than Lucca, it is close to Cinque Terre.
From here you can easily reach Pisa and Florence but ABOVE ALL, you can have thermal baths relax!
Try here for your staying http://www.ercoliniesavi.it
Cortona is beautiful, no doubt, but the problem is that it's far from everywhere, so you just will visit Cortona and no other place probably.
Montecatini and Lucca leave your choices wide open instead.

Stay in Lucca for 5 nights. You can't miss Florence although a day trip is hardly enough. From Lucca you can visit Cinque Terre for a day - and the other places you have mentioned.

I stayed in both Lucca and Cortona up to a week and you won't regret either choice.

Your Lucca area choices look fine to me. Look at Spoleto, Spello, Assisi, Gubbio as well for consideration.

Thank you all. We decided to take the advice of Jean and booked with Genius Loci in Umbria. Currently outside Lucca, went to Pisa yesterday, Florence today and hoping to fit in Lucca tomorrow and Cinque Terre on Monday. Will go to Umbria on Tuesday after spending some time driving around the Chianti region during that day. Hope to see Assissi, Perugia , Todi, etc in Umbria in our four days there before heading off to Ostio Antica on Saturday and home on Sunday. Actually taking time every day to get back to the hotel each afternoon for a swim and relaxation before dinner in the evening. Having a wonderful time.
Pisa was surprisingly less touristy than I thought it would be. The Duomo was very impressive-much more so than Florence's, in my humble opinion.

I'm jealous...

Have fun!

I'm jealous also! Gubbio is pretty special.

Didn't meat to hit submit--meant to say how much I agree with your about Pisa's Duomo--it gets short shrift IMHO.

Looking forward to reading more!

I would choose Lucca. Cortona is a bit too far from the best of Umbria. And while it might be fine in early September, I found it abhorrently crowded in late summer (it was quite nice in mid-October when all the visitors had fled, though).